Identity and Relationships

By Taylah Baker

Identity and Relationships

By Taylah Baker

Important Factors In A Healthy Relationship

In a healthy relationship some important elements to have are love for each other, trust, respect for yourself and your partner, support, no judgement and to be happy. You should accept one another as you are and be compassionate. You shouldn’t feel pressured to do everything your partner tells you to do or feel like you don’t have a voice in your relationship. In a healthy relationship you should be committed to one another and willing to both give and take. It is important to be able to feel like you can openly communicate with your partner and be able to express your feelings because that is how you will both know what the other is feeling and thinking. It is essential in a relationship to be happy because everyone deserves someone who brings happiness and positive energy into their lives. Although at times relationships can be tricky and conflicting couples should learn from this conflict and resolve issues in a way that works for both people through listening to each others points of view and compromising. Healthy relationships trust each other to not hurt one another and feel happy to see each others happiness.

Catholic Church Teachings On Sexual Intimacy

The Catholic church teaches that sexuality is a great gift and that sexual intimacy is for two people who are committed together through the sacrament of marriage. It includes the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual aspects of a person. The Catholic church believes that sexual acts have two functions. These are unitive and procreative. Unitive means the couples are brought together through sex and procreative means that sexual intercourse has the potential to make a baby or start new life. They Catholic church does not support homosexuality relationships because they are not procreative and there is no possibility for a new life or baby to be conceived. Another teaching of the Catholic church is that sexual acts must also respect the dignity and value of each person.

These teachings are set in place for three reasons. These are:

-The Catholic church believes we are created with dignity and worth with rights, responsibilities and uniqueness.

-Every human act should enhance the image, dignity and respect of each individual.

-To protect and promote these standards.

Catholic Church Teachings On Contraceptives

The Catholic church does not believe in the use of contraceptives during sexual intercourse because they believe sexual acts should be both unitive and procreative. Unitive means couples are brought together in a special way through sexual intercourse and procreative means sexual intercourse has the potential of beginning a new life and conceiving a baby. By using contraceptives there is little to no chance of beginning a new life because it alters our bodies unnaturally. The Catholic church teaches that artificial contraception divides these functions and makes sexual intercourse incomplete. They encourage natural methods because this results in the responsibility being shared by both people to abstain from sexual intercourse when they are fertile. The Catholic church believes people should abstain from sexual intercourse until they are united with a person through the sacrament of marriage.

Informed Conscience

Our conscience can be described as an inner voice telling us what is right or wrong based on each individual persons morals and beliefs. The Catholic church teaches that our conscience calls us to do good for others and ourselves and avoid evil while following the Church rules. An informed conscience is when a person makes an informed decision based on information about a particular moral issue. They have researched and thought through all possibilities before making there decision and they believe it is a good choice. The Catholic church believes that informing one’s conscience will involve asking and receiving information from a teaching of the Catholic church such as the bible and understanding what it has to say before making an important decision. For example the Catholic church does not believe in sexual intercourse before marriage, abortion, etc because it goes against the teachings of God.